Re: JD 346 sq baler.

Accumulator and grapple verses bale wagon. What's the pro's and con's. Seems I'd prefer the wagon. But then again the grapple could be used to load out sales.What's y'all take on that.

If you've got the bale numbers to support another piece of equipment - they're a good option. A good condition, self-propelled NH (116 bale model) is gonna be somewhere between $10-15K. Then you gotta feed it and take care of it, too.

I don't have the production numbers, personally. We've been lookin' at some more ground on a lease-rent option but even then I'd only be around 2,500 bales on a good year.

I've been able to get enough high school kids @ $15hr (and all they can drink and eat!) to get the hay off the field and into the barn. However, the kids are gettin' older and fewer in number! Pretty soon it'll just be me and the wife!

I'm gonna go big rounds for alot of my hay. I'll keep doin' some small squares (~300) and the rest will be 4'x5'.

AKfish

"Most people want to live on top of the mountain, but all the happiness and growth occurs while you're climbing it."

Re: JD 346 sq baler.

Accumulator and grapple verses bale wagon. What's the pro's and con's. Seems I'd prefer the wagon. But then again the grapple could be used to load out sales.What's y'all take on that.

My 2 cents ... as AK says another unit to feed and take care of ... they are very nice for the large producer and I'd think one would need a big barn to manuver around in. For a producer my size doing 5K squares a year and stacking in a smaller barn the accumulator and grapple are the ticket for me. Of course the price is attractive.

What they don't show you in the video is that you have to remove the "chambers" in order to unload and stack in the barn ... then you have to put them back on when you go to the field to accumulate ... on and off and on and off .... I want to put up hay not be laying under a piece of equipment on a hot summer day trying to get the pins lined up and chambers back in place.